Government buys choppers for police

Government has bought three helicopters for the police to help improve their operations, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo has said.

Mr Kampyongo said the helicopters will enhance efficiency of the police in carrying out their duties.

He said this on Radio Phoenix’s “Let the people talk” radio discussion yesterday. The programme also featured Foundation for Democratic Process executive director McDonald Chipenzi and Inspector General of Police Stella Libongani.

“This is the first time in the history of Zambia that our police will have helicopters for operations. The helicopters will be in the country within the next three months,” he said.

Mr Kampyongo said government is undertaking a number of reforms in the police service.

This will be more hazardous than helpful. Improve police conditions of service first and give them better housing. Their performance will improve too. Those choppers will go the way of the police horses.

When politics take over your each and every breath you stop thinking straight, even whe the government in power does something good, you will try to find the political side of it. Not until the day your close relative is in need , thats when your medulla wakes up. Honestly whats wrong about acquiring even 1 helicopter for this government forsaken police force? whats negative about that?

This is a very good development and in fact long overdue as a modern and efficient method of preventing and combating crime. I just hope that these choppers are brand new and not problems that the seller is throwing away.

In the next three days in preparation for rigging? What a sad day for Zambia. Doing things in a hurry without a proper plan. Have we got trained police officers to fly those choppers? Don’t you think it will be ideal to instead buy chopper ambulances going by the many fatal accidents that happen on our roads everyday? With only four working days remaining, PF is panicking, we’ve bought choppers, we’ve released the draft constitution roadmap just because of HH. Reinstating nurses, recognising Sosala, bane, is this really happening so fast for me?

I think it doesn’t take too long to train a chopper pilot. I don’t claim to be an expert on this, but we are not talking about training pilots for a 777 jumbo jet here. I am sure ZPS has probably already sent a few people to be trained as pilots. If not, they can, in the meantime, hire private/civilian chopper pilots until they have their own trained.

I also think that this will open up more opportunities for ZAF pilots who want to leave the military and still continue with their flying careers. So, really, I don’t see how ZP can struggle to find and recruit qualified chopper pilots in Zambia.

when you go to any police station, you will find a lot of broken down police vehicles due to lack of maintenance. are they going to maintain these choppers? we do not want them to be falling from the sky.

I think ZAF does a good job maintaining their fleet of choppers. I am sure ZPS can contract with ZAF to do maintenance and repairs works on theirs too.

All in whole, this is a good steep in the right direction for the police. There are certain cases and situations that sometimes really calls for the swift and timely response by the police. Especially in remote areas of our country.

@Yambayamba, your suggestion of having ZAF servicing the choppers is a good one. I am however not sure that the choppers shall increase the Police’s response. even with their cars, they are able to respond quickly, but there are some corrupt elements who deliberately delay the response to enable criminals rob you then they share the loot later on. I was once a victim of this.

@zambian, I have a brother who is a police officer stationed in Mansa, Luapula province. I visited Zambia not too long ago (actually during the funeral of Sata I was in Zambia.) And he told me stories about the problems in the border areas with DRC. When a crime happens in these areas and requires immediate police response, and ZP is mostly unable. It takes police days, even a week, to act/respond.

Maybe I am just too optimistic. But a reduction in response time from weeks/days to only a few hours/days would mean a lot to our fellow Zambians living in these remote border areas. This is just one example. But there are many situations in which choppers can come in handy for the police.

Nonetheless, I do get your point about the current pathetic response time by our police!

@Yambayamba another PF cadre so you think HH will authorize the purchase of second choppers being used by chagwa lungu.PF is loosing see pictures for Livingstone its happening right now big time.VIVA Zambia United.HH has completed going around Zambia while your Lungu has only done half.How does he win Zambia is big bane.

Essentially PF is trying to feed the legendary cow on market day with hopes that it will sale. They are trying to do in six days what they where supposed to do in 3 years. A clear cut example of incompetence at its best. It’s too late now. No one is buying. It’s time to go. Farewell PF.

Hon Kampyongo, a bit of research is necessary for one to make informed statements.The Zambia Police once operated helicopters. These helicopters, together with their pilots were transferred to ZAF.
It is therefore, not correct to state that this is the first time in the history of the country that the Police will have helicopters.

Very silly acquisition by government. Upgrade the infrastructure of the police service, computerise the damn service it’s so slow. There so many areas to improve, this government has misplaced priorities, it’s the reason why farmers haven’t been paid.

you need to be informed that government bought and fully paid maize for strategic reserves.(food security). from the farmers who initially supplied their maize to food reserve agency. This was actually budgeted in the national budget. Now since there was bumper harvest and farmers did not have were to sell their produce, the PF government, being a listening government had to come to the aid of our farmers by ensuring that it got, rather bought the maize from the farmers.mind you that since it had already exhausted the budgeted amount for the strategic reserves, it had to find money from other sources to pay the farmers for the excess maize. take note that government operates on an activity based accounting.hence the delay.

The buying of choppers with give especially commercial farmers who have recently been victims to serious crimes some hope as the response time by the coppers (police) will be much quicker to reach a crime scene.

Remember the COMMODORE cars?
My prognosis is that the helicopters will follow their erstwhile predecessors.
Zambians need a low-tech solution. The brains capable of maintaining them are all abroad. Just those who were unemployable by foreign countries are at home. Those citizens created in the Edward Lungu, Michael Sata and Chishimba Kambwili mould. Should PF win the elections next week….EXPECT ANOTHER 50 YEARS OF STAGNATION, BACKWARDNESS AND EXPLOITATION. Zambia’s natural resources will make China and India boom. Like it or loathe it guys!

This is just another cheap campaign strategy.
Are the choppers brand new or are they to be salvaged from the dumping grounds of the Communist Peoples Republic of China to be donated as a new year present to the Peoples Republic of Zambia?

I actually believe that he’ll be relieved. Sitting down in a quiet pubwith a pint is what the guy really wants. It’s so painfully obvious he’s out of his depth.
He wants those 6 days to elapse even more than we do.

Kekekeke, what a waste of resources, they will start flying their concubines in the helicopters as they always do with police vehicles and when you call 911 they will tell you how much they don’t have fuel and ask you to pee in the tank.

No people all those choppers we are seeing around apart from ZAF choppers have been chartered from Livingstone and South African based Operators.please look at the registration marks.we all want to give comments without research but why????Helicopters are very delicate Muchines to handle and operate!

Will the helicopters make the police more efficient? Are there trained pilots? Police have cars but these cars are not used to fight crime, they seem to be used to go shopping at Manda Hill. It is ashame! And until their conditions are improved theZambian Police will continue to duck and dive. RTSA officers directing traffic and busy talking on mobile phones! Come on guys have some integrity.

A NUMBER OF THESE BLOGGERS SUPPORTING LUNGU ARE BENEFICIARIES TO THE LOOTING BY PF ON OUR RESOURCES. YOU HAVE BEEN SENT BY PF TO SERVE IN DIASPORA UNDESERVEDLY. YOU ARE LIKE SMALL BARKING DOGS UPON SEEING A MASSIVE ANIMAL, AN ELEPHANT. WE KNOW THAT YOUR JOBS ARE AT STAKE, HENCE YOUR CONTINUOUS HELPLESS BARKING. TRUTH IS THAT PEOPLE HAVE FALLEN IN LOVE WITH HH. HH IS THE NEXT PRESIDENT OF ZAMBIA. THIS IS BY GOD’S DESIGN.

Its very sad to listen the respective remarks expressed by the zambian citizenry on matters relating to aviation.this is in respect to the Govt buying choppers for the police.Firstly society is completely ill informed on what goes on interms of Training and maintaining of rotary winged aircraft.just to cut the long story short it costs an average 900000 k to train a person from ab-initio upto the time they become fully qualified to fly a helicopter.Then they need to a get rating on a particular chopper which adds to the cost and am sure it must be a turbine muchine.Then you also look at the type of chopper,its mission statement,range,endurance,is it all weather capable,maintaince the list is endless.heli pilots n technicians are not developed over night.please lets not be ignorant zeddy???